


Suradanna and the Tide

by LookingForOctober



Category: Suradanna and the Sea - Rebecca Fraimow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 03:52:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12832722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LookingForOctober/pseuds/LookingForOctober
Summary: Suradanna and the captain negotiate another life in Salamadan Port.





	Suradanna and the Tide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sophia_sol](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophia_sol/gifts).



Suradanna liked to think of herself as the sort of person who was sensitive to the needs of others.

Her captain -- "You must be captain of something, so you may be captain of me until something better comes along," she had said in an embarrassing but delightful moment of unguarded sentimentality a few years into their partnership, and then although neither of them ever referred to it again, Suradanna held to that manner of reference within the sanctity of her thoughts from that moment on.

Her captain would laugh if she ever put it that way in conversation, but would have to admit the justice of the remark if pressed. Suradanna had learned the intricacies of trading in her first lifetime, and part of trading was figuring out what the other party wanted -- or needed.

And it wasn't very difficult to figure out that something new was needed in her relationship with her captain in these last several years.

At first, things had been easy for them. The captain had surrendered to necessity in seeking out Suradanna, and she was not the type to surrender half-heartedly. Suradanna offered her a place in House Suradan, and she clung to it.

Perhaps easy was not the right word, but they had been aligned in purpose. Together, they had guided House Suradan through the difficult years, while Salamadan Port faded around them. It had taken both of them to keep House Suradan afloat, Suradanna guiding each venture from port, and her captain as her eyes and arms, overcoming her distaste for the iron ships to keep an eye on the perils of the sea and bring home the goods -- the changes and developments -- that Salamadan Port needed to survive.

It was the captain that had discovered the hover-ships, sailing on a cushion of air that not only allowed them exceptional speed but also the agility to avoid obstacles and monsters. Fifty years of development later, the revival of Salamadan Port depended on moveable islands -- iron trade depots far out at sea and hover-ships to bring goods from the depots to the port.

Or ports. The city spread out along the coast, each area specializing in certain goods, and so even as Salamadan Port revived, the core of the city remained attenuated, and the bustle that Suradanna remembered was never quite the same.

But trade was better than ever, and House Suradan prospered, and Suradanna quit worrying -- except occasionally, when she was in an especially bad mood -- that Salamadan Port might one day cease to be any sort of port at all.

And her captain came home from her voyages, claiming that she was glad to leave the iron ships that had taken over all the deep ocean voyages.

"I could not captain one of _those_ forever," she told Suradanna. "The sea is no longer for me." She took up gardening in the new House Suradan garden with every evidence of enjoyment. All the trade houses had gardens now, the old buildings that had once crowded the center of the city torn down to make room for these exquisite spaces, designed to show off some of the botanical treasures of trade.

In the evening, Suradanna enjoyed walking through the garden amidst the heavy scents of the exotic flowers, but she did not think that being a gardener for House Suradan would hold her captain's interest for long.

So she noticed the signs, when her captain began walking along the harbor road when the wind was from the sea, and when her captain began arranging plants in her garden into elaborate knots, and when her captain stared at the maps in the offices of House Suradan when she thought Suradanna wasn't looking.

And she made plans, and then one day her plans came to fruition. Suradanna was deep in the ravages of pretended old age once again, but on the day she left old Suradanna inside and took on the guise of a younger relative. She skipped and twirled as she led the way down to the harbor in a way that made her captain smile.

The smile crooked when her captain saw Suradanna's gift for her. 

"This is..."

Suradanna filled the silence quickly. "She's called _Phoenix With Two Heads_. She's a prototype, but if she succeeds, more will be made."

"And you're giving me the opportunity to prove that wooden ships can sail the seas again," the captain said. The captain of the _Phoenix With Two Heads_ now. Suradanna felt a sense of loss, along with a sense of pride. She'd worked hard to get this right.

"Yes," Suradanna said. "Wood from a special breed of tree, wood that's designed for what happens in the presence of zuiran, a ship that grows and evolves as it sails..."

The captain's gaze was uncertain, drifting from the ship to Suradanna, and for a moment Suradanna wondered if she might have misjudged. But then the captain nodded, brisk and cool, her gaze returning to the ship with a proprietary air.

"She'll run circles around those iron monstrosities," she said.

"Yes, you will," Suradanna said.

It took a few weeks to hire the crew, arrange for provisions and a few last minute cargo items, but soon enough Suradanna was standing on the pier, preparing to say goodbye.

"Take care," she told her captain. "Come back safely. I'll miss you, you know."

"You'll manage," the captain said, her gaze on the tide marker a little behind Suradanna. Her expression softened when she looked back to Suradanna. 

"You don't have to worry about me," she said, and Suradanna realized that the fear she had thought she'd packed away long ago, when she'd first discovered the wood and the method of shaping it that allowed it to grow instead of crack when exposed to zuiran, and when she'd first made this plan and settled within herself what it would mean -- that fear for her captain, sailing the seas in a prototype that might have any number of unexpected problems that hadn't come out in testing -- 

"I'm not worried," she said.

They hugged before parting, and then the captain walked lightly up the gangplank. Suradanna watched the ship sail away, through the crowded harbor, out onto the open ocean, over the horizon.

And then it was gone.

 

Two months later, she did it again. The maiden voyage had gone well, and now the _Phoenix with Two Heads_ was scheduled for a longer trip. It was easier this time, Suradanna laughed and joked and thought for sure that she hid whatever worry she might feel completely.

"When you return, you might not recognize me," she said. "It's about time, don't you think?"

"I had wondered about that," her captain said. She looked as young as she ever had. She'd been in and out of port often enough over the last several decades that she'd never taken up Suradanna's trick of aging.

"Do you have plans for your next life?" she asked.

"You'll have to wait and see," Suradanna said.

The captain of the _Phoenix with Two Heads_ raised an eyebrow at Suradanna, and Suradanna grinned back. "It's a surprise."

"You haven't decided yet," the captain guessed. Suradanna made a face at her. "I'll try to find something to bring back to celebrate your new life," the captain said. Her tone was -- not surprised, not exactly, but thoughtful.

Suradanna thought about that when the captain was gone. It was strange to think of moving on to a new life while making sure that someone else would be able to fit into whatever she picked. 

And the loose ends of her life as the founder of House Suradan just kept proliferating. Six months passed more quickly than Suradanna would ever have imagined, and then seven.

Suradanna found herself walking along the harbor road when the wind was from the sea, and staring at maps in the offices of House Suradan. But she drew the line at knotting innocent plants into sailor's knots; she didn't know any, anyway.

She still remembered the crack of timbers when another ship called _Phoenix_ had foundered; she should have given more thought before she named the new ship, she berated herself. What a dose of luck to give something that was supposed to be all about rebirth.

Eight months. Her preparations for her new life withered; she hadn't the heart to go through with it until her captain returned.

She walked the harbor road, her steps a shuffle that was not entirely feigned. She watched the tide go in and out, and for the first time in all her years she allowed herself to feel old. She'd acted old many times, but she'd never felt the weight of her years this heavily.

People as anchors are dangerous, she remembered. Her captain had changed, and changed again. There had been need, but now...?

Suradanna had never allowed herself to feel grief for what was gone, she'd run away from that feeling, knowing that it was a trap. Now, it felt like a trap that ... she would pull herself out of. She would. Just not yet.

The tide rolled in and out, and Suradanna knew that eventually, she would remember how to float, how to allow the tide to bear her upward, back to the kind of life she was used to living.

But for now, she watched the waves and remembered everything that she'd ever loved, everything that was gone.

 

She received news of the _Phoenix with Two Heads_ a couple of days before it sailed into the harbor. Everyone in Salamadan Port heard the news of a wooden turtle-ship approaching, and Suradanna dared to hope, even though the frequent mention of turtles confused her.

The name of the wooden ship came via a fast hover-ship the next day, and Suradanna had time to direct that the offices be decorated with new treasures -- tapestries bordered with rows of identical seashells and fantastic silk flowers in shapes crafted by imagination rather than nature, before she made for the harbor road with a telescope. She was not the only one peering out along the coast.

But Suradanna thought that she bounced the highest at the sight of the _Phoenix with Two Heads_. The ship was bigger than she had been when she left port so many months ago, and her wooden sides gleamed with a pattern like an elaborate inlay, or overlapping layers of bark, or the fused plates of a turtle's shell.

"It's beautiful," Suradanna told the captain as evening fell. They'd celebrated the return of the _Phoenix_ in the offices, along with the rest of House Suradan, and then snuck away during a lull in the festivities, back to Suradanna's apartment. "But...

The captain nodded, understanding the implied question. "We hit an area of higher zuiran concentration on the journey home. It was either force it to grow together, force the boards to interlock and merge, or it would have grown apart. We spent some anxious moments before we got the hang of it."

Suradanna shuddered, imagining a ship growing apart. "I had no idea that could happen! Not with this new _Phoenix_."

"She's a good ship," the captain assured Suradanna. "Tighter than ever now."

Suradanna looked away.

Wisely, the captain changed the subject, and the evening passed pleasantly for both of them, exchanging all the news of so many months apart, rediscovering the comfort of talking to each other about anything and everything.

But there was no way for Suradanna to avoid her own thoughts forever. The captain caught up with her on the harbor road. "I wanted to ask you about the next voyage of the _Phoenix_ ," she said.

Suradanna stared at the oncoming wave. "You should talk to the head of House Suradan, not me," she said.

"You have passed on your responsibilities, but you haven't moved on," the captain observed. "Why, Suradanna?"

There were evasive answers. Suradanna had been giving them to herself for several months. She gave the captain the truth.

"I don't know what I want to do next. I was waiting for you."

"After you sent me away?"

"I thought you needed to go!"

The captain stared out across the harbor, and Suradanna couldn't tell what she was thinking. 

"Maybe I did," the captain said finally. "Just once, to really understand that I've moved on. I was the right person to captain the _Phoenix_ on her first few voyages. I'm not going to make her another _Dolphin Breaths Fire_. I've made _you_ another _Dolphin Breaths Fire_."

Suradanna looked from the incoming tide to the captain, hardly daring to believe that what she heard was true.

"Let's start a new life together," Suradanna said, feeling greatly daring. Excitement bubbled inside of her, and a stream of possibilities, each more enticing than the last. Possibilities for two, together.

"I thought you'd never ask," Suradanna's captain said.

"What do you want to do?"

"It just so happens..." her captain said, smiling. "Do you remember that I said I'd bring you a gift for your next life?"

Suradanna was dancing with anticipation.

Her captain brought out a roll of paper. It took four hands to unroll it against the wind, but when it was relatively flat, Suradanna looked at the drawing -- a network of towers and walkways, all graceful curves and delicate connections.

"It's beautiful," she said. "But what is it for?"

"It's a dock for a flying ship," her captain said. "They're already building them in Ho-Meizala." That was further than most ships out of Salamadan Port went regularly.

"We'll be the first," Suradanna said. 

The next page was a drawing of the hills outside of Salamadan Part, covered with the docks. "A harbor for flying ships," Suradanna said. 

"Would you like to try being harbormaster? Or would you prefer to be a shipbuilder?" her captain asked. "Or an architect's assistant? I'm thinking of being a harbor designer. If we choose the location correctly, we can bring back the center of Salamadan Port to its old bustle. I know you miss that."

Suradanna flung her arms around her.

"You really do know how to change," she said, her voice muffled. 

Her captain chuckled. "I learned from the best."


End file.
